Drama series, UnReal, on Lifetime cancelled after 4 seasons, latest season likely to only make its debut on DStv in Africa in 2019.

The drama series UnReal shown on A+E Networks Africa's Lifetime (DStv 131) channel has been quietly cancelled after 4 seasons.

UnReal that followed the drama behind-the-scenes on the set of a fictional American dating reality show, Everlasting, had its 3rd season broadcast on Lifetime since April in South Africa and across Africa earlier this year.

So far there's no word about whether DStv subscribers will be seeing the 4th season of UnReal with A+E Networks that didn't announce the cancellation news.

Instead the shortened 4th season's 8 episodes of UnReal with Shiri Appleby and Constance Zimmer made their debut on Monday 16 July on America's subscription video-on-demand (SVOD) service, Hulu - again with no word on whether it might show up later on Lifetime in the United States.

UnReal remains fully-owned by A+E Studios. The 4th season of UnReal - if shown on Lifetime Africa - will only be able to be shown during 2019 at the earliest.

"UnReal has captivated audiences on Hulu since season one, so when this opportunity came to us, we knew we couldn't miss out," said Craig Erwich, the senior vice president for content at Hulu in a statement on Monday.

"This is a unique way to both satisfy fans of the show, while also continuing to introduce it to new audiences."

Barry Jossen, A+E Studios executive vice president, says "We love season four of UnReal and its visionary creativity in bringing back many favourite characters for an all-star competition".

"When the opportunity to partner with Hulu arose, we immediately saw the huge benefit to UnReal's loyal fans, as well as a unique way of recruiting first-time viewers to this ground-breaking series."

"UnReal has been an incredible ride filled with awards, critical recognition, committed fans and, best of all, insightful cultural dialogue throughout its run. We expect season four to deliver another great round of cultural influence with its timely themes."

The third season of UnREAL is starting on Lifetime on 16 April at 8pm, this time with a suitress looking for a mister right in the show-within-a-show.

The third season of the show-within-a-show drama series, UnREAL, will start on Lifetime (DStv 131) on 16 April at 20:00 just a few weeks behind America that is currently on the 3rd episode.

Lifetime has started with another rebroadcast of the second season of UnREAL since 12 March, that will be followed by the third season from 16 April.

As with the first two seasons, the third season also has 10 episodes and this time revolves around Everlasting's first Suitress, Serena, looking for a man.

Everlasting is on the verge of cancellation, producer Rachel is on a psychological "detox" and "cleanse" and just speaks in brutal truths, while the executive producer Quinn and everybody else have their own issues as usual.

A new circle logo for Lifetime as A+E Networks UK once again updates the female-skewed channel's look to fit its American counterpart.

The Lifetime (DStv 131) channel supplied by A+E Networks UK, will again be changing its logo and its on-air look from Tuesday 6 February.

The Lifetime logo change for South Africa and Africa comes exactly a year after the change was introduced in America in February 2017 for the female-skewed channel.

During the past year public reaction to the new, more dull and plain circular logo and the word "LIFETIME" inside has been less than great; it remains to be seen what reaction DStv subscribers in South Africa and across the rest of the continent will have a reaction to it, if any.

With the new Lifetime logo also comes some new programming, and besides the logo, Lifetime's on-air look and feel will change, with new Lifetime channel idents.

"With busy schedules; juggling the demands of work, children and home, we know just how hectic life gets and that Lifetime viewers come to the channel to be entertained," says Naz Khan, A+E Networks Africa head of marketing.

"We are driven to ensure that the shows on Lifetime give our viewers that chance to unwind and to escape. It is important to us that viewers also see a reflection of themselves in the real life people portrayed on our channel and know that they are not going it alone."

The 4th season of The Rap Game will start on Wednesday 7 February in which rappers from all walks of life bust beats for the ultimate prize of a recording contract with the Grammy winner Jermaine Dupri.

The 4th season of Little Women Atlanta starts on Wednesday 14 February at 20:00.

Terra's Big House starts on Lifetime on 22 February at 20:00, following Terra and Joe from Little Women: LA as they embark on a new journey as parents.

Question of Love is a new show starting on Friday 23 February at 20:00 following 3 couples as they ask each other some of the toughest truths.

If you’ve ever wondered about the powerhouse behind fashion’s Gigi and Bella and their model brother Anwar, their mom Yolanda Hadid shares her secrets and sees if she can replicate that success for six aspiring models in Making a Model with Yolanda Hadid starting Thursday 1 March 20:50.

The former model guides models and their "momagers" though an intensive 8 week training program.

The 6th season of the American version of Married at First Sight will start on Lifetime on 30 Mach 20:50. Viewers will follow Boston singles paired up.

Lifetime will broadcast the Lifetime Original Movie that was just broadcast on Lifetime in America, Cocaine Godmother on 31 March at 20:00. Catherine Zeta-Jones stars in the true story of Griselda Blanco Restrepo, the most infamous woman in the drug world.  

It follows Griselda from the age of 17, when she made her way to America with a fake passport through to her ruthlessly running the cocaine trade in America until she was deported back to Colombia in 2012.

Lifetime will repeat the second season of UnReal from Monday 12 March at 20:00 and says it will show the 3rd season of UnReal "in coming months".

Lifetime’s new beauty competition Glam Masters will start in June and has Laverne Cox as presenter and Kim Kardashian West as executive producer. "I’m fascinated by how artists are able to transform someone’s look with makeup and couldn’t be more ecstatic for them to show what they can really do," says Laverne Cox.

DAILY TV NEWS ROUND-UP. Today's interesting TV stories to read from TVwithThinus - 19 October 2017.

Here's the latest news about TV that I read and that you should read too:


■ Where has TStv gone? 18 days after its 1 October launch in Nigeria, TStv is seemingly nowhere.
Biola Kazeem wonders about Nigerian's gullibility and their willingness to accept fake promises like thelies about TV channels TStv says its carrying but isn't allowed to.
- TStv isn't what we need now," says Nigerians. "We actually need an uninterrupted electricity supply".

■ MIPCOM TV market told: Black people are rare as unicorns on prime time TV

■ Australian breakfast show presenter lurks and hides behind her car!
Lisa Wilkingson hides behind her car from the paparazzi after a nasty fight following abreakdown in salary negotiations goes public between a TV star's agent in Australia and the Nine network.

■ China's StarTimes says Uganda is one of the African countries that benefitted from the $2.5 billion contract for digital terrestrial TV migration.
Of course StarTimes itself benefitted commercially too - since it's China's money.
Meanwhile StarTimes has taken 51 journalists from across Africa to Beijing and China for a media tour and to cover the 19th Congress of the Communist Party of China but has deliberately excluded South Africa's media.

■ New SABC board Febe Potgieter-Qubule claims:
"I don't see myself compromised". Says her new SABC board position will make her reconsider her role in the ANC going forward.

■ Econet Media officially launches Kwesé TV in Uganda.
Has a media launch event in Kampala where Kwesé TV will now have to battle it out against MultiChoice Uganda's DStv and China's StarTimes for pay-TV viewers.
- Quite inane and non-sensical comments from Herbert Mucunguzi, Kwesé TV Uganda general manager as to what Kwesé TV Uganda offers. You'd think he or the PR people would put in actual effort to come up with non-stock comments not already used before by MultiChoice and StarTimes for their offerings.
- Kwesé TV Zambia's general manager Kapa Kaumba fawning over Zambia's government, likewise talks a lot that means absolutely nothing.


■ Nielsen to measure viewing of shows streaming on Netflix.
The service aiming to measure and find ratings for On Demand video streaming services, will provide data comparable to what Nielsen provides for linear TV, including ratings, reach, frequency and demographics.
- Netflix slams the effort and Nielsen: "The data that Nielsen is reporting is not accurate, not even close, and does not reflect the viewing of these shows on Netflix".

■ Digital TV a massive and expensive flop in Thailand.
Digital terrestrial television migration came too late and audience behaviour had already changed due to technology.

■ Final 4th season of Star Wars Rebels on Disney XD (DStv 304) will be more serialised.
Last season just started in America, no date yet for when it starts in South Africa and Africa, but Dave Filoni says "episodes will be more serialised than you're used to".


■ The actor Javid Iqbal doesn't really exist, Star Trek: Discovery made him up since actor Shazad Latif is apparently playing both Voq who disguises himself to become Ash Tyler.
- Maybe some clarity about the confusing plot points in Star Trek: Discovery.
- Jason Isaacs says Star Trek: Discovery is "of our time, and for our time."
- Klingon Voq can't stay missing for much longer.


■ How big is delayed TV viewing in America?
In some cases it's even bigger than live viewing - in others almost nothing. Here's how some of America's biggest TV shows break down when it comes to viewers who watch it after its been shown.

■ Why competing with Netflix and Amazon is impossible.
MUST WATCH: Barry Diller discusses what makes Netflix and Amazon today's leaders in video.


■ Executive producer of Viacom's The Mist TV drama, Amanda Segel, accuses Harvey Weinstein's brother Bob Weinstein of sexual harassment.
- Variety's TV critic Maureen Ryan says a TV executive sexually assaulted her.
- Hollywood's other open secret: Preying on young boys.
- Inside Harvey Weinstein's horrific history of bullying: "Has never done anything that was consensual".

■ The shamed Roy Price out at Amazon after shocking sexual harassment claims.

■ And a MUST READ: Inside Amazon and the fall of the vulgar exec Roy Price.
As usual Amazon and Roy Price are silent and refused to comment. Amazon insiders reveal Roy Price's "crude sex talk" at gatherings, asked staffers if stars in a TV series would "show their tits";  misogyny of scripts.

■ Fighting the pirates.
How illegal downloads and streaming of TV shows is now impacting the global TV industry.
Netflix says it's pushing to secure global rights and release all originals simultaneously to global members to help address piracy, and "that there's been a notable reduction in piracy in countries where we operate".

■ Lifetime (DStv 131) finally releases a trailer for the delayed 3rd season of UnReal.
The 3rd season will start in America on 26 February 2018 and will this time revolve around a bachelorette looking for Mister Right. No word yet on when the 3rd season will start on Lifetime in South Africa and Africa on MultiChoice's DStv.

■ The delicate art of the TV series finale.
Ending a TV series properly with a perfect final episode is equal parts craft and philosophy.

■ Next year the Swiss will vote to get rid of TV and radio licence fees.
Switzerland voting in March 2018 on a proposal to scrap the licence fee for the Swiss Broadcasting Corporation (SBC).

■ Nigerian presenter of a TV crime show sues over being blocked by Nigerian police.
Aisha Tosan, the presenter of presenter of Crime Fighters, Police and You files papers in Lagos High Court to stop Nigeria's police from blocking her, and impeding her right to give out information.

■ Chelsea Handler's talk show, Chelsea, on Netflix cancelled after 2 seasons.
Went from daily in the first season, to weekly in the second season to cancelled.

■ In a new generation of social media-driven dramas
viewers decide the outcome in the next episode, as part of TV's next big new trend.

Lifetime releases teaser trailer for the 3rd season of UnReal; will start in February in America with no date for the show in Africa on DStv yet.

Lifetime has revealed a teaser trailer for the long-delayed 3rd season of the drama series UnReal that will start in February 2018 more than a year after the previous season ended.

While the 3rd season of UnReal will start on 26 February 2018 in America, a starting date for the season on Lifetime Africa (DStv 131) from A+E Networks UK for South Africa and Africa on MultiChoice's DStv satellite pay-TV platform isn't known yet.

In another new change, the 3rd season will revolve around a bachelorette looking for Mister Right out of a group of hunky suitors in the fictional match-making show Everlasting.

This time Caitlin FitzGerald from the drama series Masters of Sex plays the bachelorette, Serena Wolcott, who is a tech entrepreneur who suddenly declares: "From this moment forward, the only rules are the rules that I make."

Once again the producers Rachel (Shiri Appleby) and Quinn (Constance Zimmer) are however scheming and plotting behind the scenes to create dramatic reality television as the real puppet masters pulling everyone's strings.

Of course men on the sets of TV reality shows are often as, or even more vain, self-obsessed and  focused on external appearances than the woman.

In the new trailer, Rachel has to tell Quinn that one of the mantestants cut off a rival's "man-bun" while he was sleeping. In another scene Quinn says "I thought women were dramatic".

Production of the 4th season of UnReal is starting this month in Vancouver, Canada. UnReal is the first scripted series fully produced and distributed by A+E Studios with A+E Networks that also does the global sales for the show that is seen in 100 territories worldwide.

Today's interesting TV stories to read from TV with Thinus - 8 September 2015.

Viacom reveals it will launch Viacom Play Plex.
Viacom Play Plex will launch at the end of the year as a global subscription video-on-demand (SVOD) service in 180 countries where Viacom has channels including South Africa. VIMN Africa runs channels in South Africa and Africa on DStv like Nickelodeon, MTV, MTV Base, BET and Comedy Central.

Netflix says Jeremy Clarkson and his friends were "not worth the money".
Didn't pick up the former Top Gear presenters (the three went to Amazon) because "it wasn't worth it".

Isidingo on SABC3's attack on Christianity.
Endemol's logo is the Eye of Horus and an anagram for 'El Demon' and Isidingo's currenty storyline with Pastor Gabriel and his cult is "a full on attack on Christianity" says this essay.

Zuku TV is cutting down its packages to just 2.
The East African pay-TV operator is reconfiguring its 3 packages to just 2 as MultiChoice's DStv hikes its monthly subscriptions.

Problem with piracy of TV content is "bigger than ever"
Says A+E chief. Says the TV industry needs to keep up its efforts to tackle people illegally watching content.

DStv subscribers misled by MultiChoice's telesales people.
Consumer journalist Wendy Knowler details how telesales agents at On Air exploited subscribers and says complain if this also happened to you.

The lovely Larry King is preparing for the final cancellation.
Wonderful New York Times profile of Larry King obsessed with death.

Why Mr. Robot on M-Net (DStv 101) is not a great show yet.
Although the show is brilliant as a critique of what modern society has become. And without Rami Malek Mr Robot would have been a failure.

Queen Elizabeth II watches Downton Abbey ...
... and she points out the mistakes in the drama which will continue on BBC First on DStv.

Forbes on why Netflix should be afraid of ShowMax.
ShowMax has acquired video-on-demand rights Netflix now won't be able to get when it launches.

MSNBC (StarSat 263) pulls the plug on Al Sharpton's show.
Al Sharpton's daily, weeknight Politics Nation is dumped on weekends as part of the news channel's make-over.

The upcoming UnReal on Lifetime (DStv 131) renewed for a 2nd season.

Alessandra Stanley moving on after 12 years.
The New York Times' influential and often contentious TV critic is done covering TV and will now write about the world of the rich.

Adventure Time, Regular Show and 3 other Cartoon Network (DStv 301) shows renewed.
Adventure Time, Regular Show, Uncle Grandpa, Steven Universe and Clarence will all see further seasons on Cartoon Network.

Shonda Rhimes explains Grey's Anatomy's 1 year time-jump.
The 12th season will start on M-Net (DStv 101) very soon.